Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating, unique world unlike any other I have visited! Paired with a compelling hero and a gripping cast of characters, this story of loyalty and survival in a terribly harsh world is a triumph. I imagine my mind will continue to dwell in this setting for days to come.

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The Age of Miracles, Karen Walker Thompson

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A good friend of mine loaned me this book, saying she'd bawled shamelessly while she read it, waiting for her car to be serviced. Normally the tear-factor is not the biggest draw for me, but what my friend said next convinced me to read the book: the story was about the slowing, a strange phenomenon where the Earth slows down, inexorably, altering time and life forever.

Well, that was such an interesting premise that I had to have a look at The Age of Miracles, and I ended up reading it in one go. The novel is about the slowing of the earth, but through the eyes of a young girl, eleven going on twelve. Her coming of age story weaves intricately with the changes to the Earth, and illustrates one idea more clearly than any other story I've read: life goes on.

No matter what challenges we face, no matter what impossibilities become truths, a girl is still a girl, struggling to grow up and make connections and know these truths for what they are. In this story, Ms. Thompson Walker takes a simple concept and shows us its reality in real time, with all of the things we would know and do and say. Her writing makes the journey rich, the characters undeniably real, and the story compelling to the very last page.

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The Crossing

I decided to throw my hat into the ring for a contest on Figment: Defy the Dark. You can read my short story, The Crossing, here, and here's a quick blurb to give you the run-down:

In a world ruled by fear, Sera must trust in herself and her love for Ren to guide her across the gap, through the territory of the wanderers, to a chance at life in the Free Zone.

I've been reading Steven King's On Writing of late, and for once writing a scary story appealed to me. I tried to be very Mr. King about this, and wrote with little idea of where the story was headed, with the faith that somehow, it would all work out in the end.

If you haven't checked out Figment, you should! They run a lot of provoking writing contests and have a ton of great YA content, as I blogged about a while ago. Read that post for more details. Happy writing!

Insurgent, Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have to take a deep breath before I write this one. Because I have a hangover. I have an Insurgent hangover, and if I hold too tightly to the emotions swirling around in my body I'll lose it. If that's not enough of an endorsement for this, the second of Veronica Roth's novels set in a dystopian future, read on, there's more.

Divergent, the first in the series, sets us up with our main characters: Tris, or Beatrice Prior, whose voice narrates the novels, and Four, her instructor and love interest, along with a host of well-fleshed side characters from family to friends to fellow initiates. Initiates into what? In this future, society is divided into four factions, each guided by a particular proclivity: Amity, Erudite, Candor, and Dauntless. And then, of course, there are the factionless.

For those of you who have not read Divergent, I'm not going to spoil it for you. I'm not even going to say much more about the plot in Insurgent. What I'd like to describe is the way the reader feels reading these novels. You feel like you are THERE, back in THAT PLACE. Not in dystopian future Chicago, but rather in that place a young person occupies, where emotions shift like water and you live and die by the state of your heart and make the rules up as you go.

There were scenes that brought me back to that day in high school when I first met my husband, young and reckless, contrary and entirely irresistible, and other scenes that sent my heart sinking, drowning, like it did the many times we almost lost each other. There was a whole new fascinating world to explore, a world that is so refreshingly different it doesn't make SENSE. Reading Divergent, and now Insurgent, you will find yourself in strangely familiar yet completely unknown territory, and it is that duality that makes Roth's world so captivating.

In short, read it. My only regret is that I have months, or maybe a year, to wait for the next book in the series!

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Divergent, Veronica Roth

Yes, I finally, finally got on the Divergent Train(although I'm no jumper), and I have to say I'm thrilled I was late to the party . . . because now I only have a very short wait to read the next installment, Insurgent!

Divergent is a dystopian tale of a future Chicago(residents will enjoy shout-outs), where a young girl must choose the path for her future based on which virtue she holds dearest--her future society is broken into factions that are ruled by distinct, unwavering virtues: Abnegation, Amity, Dauntless, Candor, and Erudite. The faction names are fairly self explanatory. Our young heroine, Beatrice, an Abnegation girl who remolds herself as a Dauntless initiate named Triss, must face a rigorous induction into her new faction as well as a growing affection for her mentor, a distant but gorgeous older guy named Four.

So, in short, the ride was fantastic. The romance is a large part of the focus, and it keeps you turning pages. There's a good bit of violence, but Roth takes the edge off of any potential gore. Speaking of Veronia Roth, if you write, and you haven't visited her site, please do yourself a favor. Roth is a young writer--young enough to make me wish I could get a few years back--but her maturity and insights far exceed her years. You will love reading her blog.

My quibbles for Divergent were merely quibbles: Triss at times seemed too perfect. She often bemoaned her "not pretty" state, yet it was clear through descriptors and Four's reaction to her that she was attractive. I'm never much of a fan for that. I like female characters who are aware of their strengths, and if they are ignorant of their beauty, they don't call themselves ugly instead. The premise is fun to buy into, but don't nit-pick about how people could truly fall into such a strange way of life or it's easy to poke holes.

I read this book in two days. So that's as good a testament as any that it's a good read. Grab it before Insurgent comes out, and you can wait breathlessly to read more about Triss and Four along with me!